River Stone
by ncfan
Summary: A daughter wonders, and a daughter receives an answer.


A note. This is in no way compatible with any of my ideas of canon. The only reason Sasuke is on the character list is because he's the only canon character to feature in the oneshot—other canon characters are mentioned, but he's the only one who shows up in person.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

* * *

The day was steadily getting stormier. The sky was a deep iron gray, with storm clouds constantly changing position and growing darker and closer. A humid summer's wind swept through the small, trimmed trees lining the narrow street; to the left, there was a field, then a return to the city several hundred yards beyond; to the right, there was the border of decorative trees, another several hundred yards of trees, and then thick forest that faded to uniform shades of dark green, like blurs of paint on a canvas.

Chiyoko was slightly taller than most girls of her thirteen years, slightly built with skinny arms and skinny knees. Her long black hair was straight and slightly frizzy, framing a fair-skinned face with large brown eyes. She was alone, walking down the street with a slow pace that was not leisurely and was not relaxed.

Back in the Uchiha compound, she could hear the soft, far-off sounds of laughter and festivities, and it made her feel…discomfited. She couldn't think of anything else to label her feelings. She had slipped out, without anyone else noticing.

"Chiyoko."

Or so she had thought.

Sasuke cast a surprisingly mild look at her, as he came and walked beside her. Sasuke was a tall man, who dwarfed the girl walking at his left side.

Sakura had always made sympathetic overtures to the girl, trying to get closer to her. She had always wanted nothing more than a relationship with Chiyoko, and Chiyoko appreciated her kindness, but could not draw closer. Sakura radiated understanding and pity, and did not realize the way, above all others, in which Chiyoko was her father's daughter: Chiyoko did not want anyone's pity, no matter how good the intentions of the one giving it were.

Instead, it was Sasuke, Sasuke who had only stared at her with a blankness that was either sadness or emptiness when she entered the room and had initially made no attempts to approach her whom she gravitated towards. Chiyoko had a strong bond with neither of them, but it was Sasuke whom she sought out.

Maybe it was because Chiyoko hoped that Sasuke would eventually give her the answer to the unspoken question she had held on the tip of her tongue for so long.

"Did you enjoy yourself?" Sasuke asked quietly.

Chiyoko nodded, only the faintest pitch of her chin forward. "Yes. Hirohito looked well. Ino-san and Hinata-san and Sakura-san all looked well too." For some reason that Chiyoko had never disclosed and no one had ever bothered to question, she could not bring herself to refer to any of the women as "obasan"; none of them were close enough to her to warrant being called that, but most assumed that Sakura at least would get the title of "obasan", but nothing. Chiyoko maintained a polite, but empty distance.

Sasuke looked down, head tipping in the semblance of a nod. Something faint tugged on his ribcage. Though, apart from the blackness of her hair, Chiyoko took entirely after her mother in appearance, there was nothing of her mother in her nature. Sasuke saw nothing of her mother's extroversion and easygoing personality; she was entirely her father's child, taciturn and reserved, wishing to draw as little attention to herself as possible and she was succeeding. The dull browns and blacks of her clothes, the brown linen kimono top held shut by a black obi and the baggy pants, was nothing like the warm crimson shades her mother had so loved. She was a slight little shadow, invisible and she preferred it that way.

"Have you…been well?" Sasuke asked, awkwardly, wishing the situation wasn't such that he had to ask because he honestly didn't know.

"Yes." A one-word answer, cagey and closed, so like Chiyoko. Sasuke wondered if she trusted anyone at all.

When she had started attending the Academy, Chiyoko had opted to stay in the Academy dormitories rather than in the Uchiha compound. Sakura had been hurt by it, but Sasuke had understood. Now, she occupied a little house on the far edge of the Uchiha compound, far from where Sasuke and Sakura lived. They moved in different worlds; they barely knew each other at all.

Chiyoko stared up at the darkening sky, wondering if it would rain. Half of her wanted it to stay dry, not wanting to get wet. The other half of her longed to be drenched. Anything to make her feel like a remotely normal child.

"Do you ever wonder about your father?" The question hurt her, cut her open like the kunai had at the last Chunin exam she had taken before being promoted.

There were so many other things Sasuke could have asked her, things he should have asked her but didn't. Like if she ever wondered about her mother or why her father had left when she was so small. Why he hadn't taken her with her or ever bothered to try and find out about her. Why he hadn't been able to stop her mother dying. Or why he hadn't ever been a part of her life.

Chiyoko bit her lip, and tipped her head up towards the clouds, silently begging them to rain.

Sasuke's large, rough hand gripped her shoulder. They stood under the shade of a tree, the shadows making his face seem several shades darker than it was, though his emotional state was unaltered. "This came for your birthday last month. It was a bit late."

He drew his hand into his pocket and pulled something out, silently handing it to Chiyoko.

It was a smooth, softly rounded river stone, a large pebble that was about the size of her little-girl palm. It was a pearly gray, filled with soft swirls and the smell of water.

Her brown eyes widened slightly as small, callused fingers closed over the pebble as though it were the most precious gift she had ever received. "He sent this, didn't he?" Her soft voice shook slightly.

"Yes," Sasuke whispered. He looked away, and sucked in a breath. "I think he did."

* * *

The name Chiyoko means "thousand generations child". I figured that if Itachi ever had a daughter, that would be a good name for her. I'll leave it to you to infer the identity of her mother; she's a canon character, to narrow the field.


End file.
